


They Fought like Heroes

by ESawyer



Series: Beautiful Lie; Painful Truth [3]
Category: Harry Potter - Fandom
Genre: F/M, OC, first wizarding war
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-18
Updated: 2019-02-18
Packaged: 2019-10-31 01:24:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17839742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ESawyer/pseuds/ESawyer
Summary: “Gideon Prewett, it took five Death Eaters to kill him and his brother Fabian, they fought like heroes...”





	They Fought like Heroes

Fabian sighed and slumped down in his seat, trying his best to not snap at Molly. He knew better than to bother her when she was so heavily pregnant and the twins were, as per usual, wreaking havoc. He watched as Bill tried, and failed, to control them whilst Charlie giggled from where he was sat on the floor. Watching the kids was a much better way to spend his afternoon than listen to Molly and Gideon have the same argument that they had been having since the war broke out.

“Molly, someone has to step up and fight!” Gideon exclaimed.

“There's plenty of people doing that already, Gideon!” Molly snapped.

“Our numbers are dwindling, we can't back out now,” Gideon said heavily.

“Numbers are dwindling because people are _dying_ ,” Molly hissed, “numbers aren't dwindling because people are dropping out!”

Fabian sat up in his chair and cleared his throat, “Gideon is right, Molly. Someone has to stand up and fight. We’re going to win the war and-”

“When? When are we going to win the war? We’re no closer to it now than we were three years ago!”

“We’re going to be even further away if we stop fighting,” Gideon said, “besides, it's not like the Order is run by a bunch of-”

“Don't swear in front of the kids,”

“-a bunch of _you-know-what's_ ,” Gideon continued, “We’ve got people Dumbledore and Mad-Eye running it!”

“I  heard about Marlene McKinnon,” Molly said, not backing down, “and the rest of her family! An _entire_ family, gone!”

Fabian glanced over at the kids and looked back over at his sister, knowing exactly what he was thinking.

“Molly, I promise you that we won't let anything happen to you or the kids,”

“Do you think Marlene McKinnon said that to her family?” Molly asked tearfully.

“It won't happen, Molly,” Gideon said firmly, “nothing is going to hurt any of your kids,”

Just as he said that, Fred fell over and hit his head against the wall, bursting into tears.

\---

“Apparently, a load of death eaters have set up camp near a muggle school,” Remus said. He was leant against Sirius with his arm in a sling and looking worse for wear, “and I doubt they're there for any good reason,”

“Are they ever anywhere for a good reason?” Frank Longbottom mumbled.

“Sarcasm isn't appreciated right now, Longbottom,” Mad-Eye said sharply, fixing his magical eye on Frank who grimaced slightly.

“Where is this school?” Aberforth asked.

“Somewhere in London,” Remus replied, “it's a heavily populated school,”

“Which means that we’re going to have to go and be the heroes?” Sirius asked.

“If it means possible arresting some high profile death eaters, yes,” Remus replied, “I haven't got an ID on all of them but I know that Dolohov and Travers are there,”

The mood in the room immediately changed after this. Dolohov and Travers were part of the group of death eater who had killed the McKinnon family.

“When are we going?” Gideon asked.

Dumbledore cleared his throat and made Fabian jump. He had completely forgotten that the Headmaster was there.

“We should not rush into this. It is a highly sensitive situation,”

“Do you think the death eaters sit around and discuss things like this, Dumbledore?” Sirius asked, “because I highly doubt that they do,”

Dumbledore's eyes flickered over to Sirius and he smiled slightly.

“We must be better than them, Sirius,”

Sirius rolled his eyes but didn't reply.

“He's right, Sirius,” Remus said, “we need to be careful. We’re outnumbered to twenty one. Even you can't be reckless anymore,”

They delved into planning immediately. When Gideon volunteered, Fabian wasted no time in doing so too. When they had told Molly that he and Gideon we're going to join the Order, she had made them promise to stick together, no matter what.

“I'm going to have to bow out of this one,” Remus said, indicating his arm.

“I won't,” Sirius said brightly.

Remus looked as though he would very much like to stop Sirius going, but he did not say anything. Fabian did not blame him, with James and Lily having to go into hiding, it was not surprising how protective the two of them were of each other.

“I guess I'll go as well,” Frank said, “since I am an actual Auror,”

“I'm working on it!” Sirius protested.

“Anyway,” Mad-Eye said loudly, “we’ll go tomorrow night. You should all go and get some rest,”

Fabian did not get any rest. He lay wide awake staring up at the ceiling. On the rare occasion that he spoke to his mother or Molly about any upcoming missions, he would always act as though they were no big deal. Sometimes, he would even joke about them as though they were as mundane as doing the weekly food shop. He wasn't sure that they ever truly believed him, but it was enough to put their minds at ease until the next time they saw him.

The only problem was that he could not lie to himself. He could not even think about trying to convince himself that going after a bunch of death eaters was something mundane. He could not close his eyes without seeing the disfigured body of a friend or hear the screams of horror as someone was brutally murdered. He could still not help but hear Dorcas’ sobs when she had arrived at Headquarters and found out that Marlene had been murdered.

With the war breaking out so quickly, Fabian had never gotten around to having children of his own, and he had thought that that would make the fighting easier, but that was before he had gotten married. He turned his head to look at his wife, Penelope, fast asleep, the moonlight streaming in through the window lighting up her features. She was muggle born and had been in hiding for the last six months.

Being married was the best thing that had happened to him, but it was not an easy thing to navigate during in the war. It was certainly not made any easier with Penelope being in hiding. Fabian could not remember the last time that they had been on a proper date.

The worst thing was that every time he left the house, Fabian wondered if he would ever return, and he knew that Penelope was thinking the same thing. He did not like the thought of leaving her behind, especially when muggle born were being attacked at such an alarming rate. But, he reminded himself as the familiar feeling of anxiety crept  up on him, he had to fight so that they could all live freely.

“Stop staring at me, weirdo,” Penelope muttered sleepily.

“Don't flatter yourself,”

“It's a bit hard not to. Have you seen me?”

Fabian laughed quietly and looked back up at the ceiling. He was starting to feel like the war would never come to an end.

\---

“I'm fucking freezing,” Frank grumbled, “I thought August was meant to be a warm month,”

“It's midnight, Longbottom, what were you expecting? Tropical temperatures?” Sirius asked.

“I wouldn't say no,”

“Behave,” Mad-Eye hissed, “We need to start casting protective enchantments around this school,”

Gideon looked up at the school and cocked his head to the side, “it's not quite as impressive as Hogwarts, is it?”

“That's what you take away from this?” Fabian asked.

He shrugged, “just saying...”

“Get on with it!” Mad-Eye snapped.

Fabian sniggered and turned away from Mad-Eye, muttering all the protective enchantments under his breath that he could remember. He never paid enough attention in Order meetings when they discussed things like that, and as he tried to remember the correct way to pronounce _Protego Horribilis_ , he made a mental note to start listening to people when they were telling him potentially life saving information.

_“Salvio-”_

A curse cracked over Fabian's head and he dropped the floor, whirling around. An unfortunate number of death eaters were heading towards them, and Fabian suddenly didn't know what to do. It was not when Mad-Eye ran forward with his wand raised that he actually remembered what they were there to do.

“Cast charms around us!” Frank bellowed, “so Muggles don't see what's going on!”

Fabian nodded and ran in the opposite direction, trying to look as though he knew what he was doing whilst simultaneously duelling two death eaters at once. He ducked under a Killing Curse and tackled one of the death eaters to the floor, taking email care to stamp on his head as he shot a stunning spell at another death eater. The spell bounced of a Shield Charm that the death eater had put up and Fabian had to dive out of the way before it hit him.

_“Expelliarmus!”_

The death eaters wand flew through the air and landed in his outstretched hand. Before Fabian could cast another spell, Gideon appeared at his side and a jet of red light hit the death eater in the chest.

“You're so shit at stunning, Fabian,”

“Shut it,”

They got separated again as two death eaters ran towards them. Fabian could see Gideon just metres away from him, locked in a furious duel with someone he might have recognised from school. And as Fabian desperately tried to finish the duel that he was having, he chanced a glance around him and realised how outnumbered they actually were: Sirius was duelling two at once whilst Fank and Mad-Eye were duelling three. And there were still three others who were clearing biding their time and waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

_“Depulso!”_

Fabian finally got rid of his annoyingly stubborn death eater and ran over to his brother, grabbing his shoulder and forcing him to the ground as a cacophony of spells whizzed over their heads. Despite their quite dire situation, Gideon laughed loudly.

“Nothing quite like a quiet Monday night, is there?”

“We’re currently outnumbered five to two,” Fabian said, gripping onto his wand like it his lifeline, “and you're _laughing_ about it?”

“Better than crying,” he said, jumping back up.

Chuckling, Fabian stood upand stood back to back with his brother, looking into the eyes of the death eater mask before him. He wondered if he had gone to school with this person, wondered if they had ever shared an eye-roll in the library when the librarian would not stop shushing people who were barely making any noise or if they had ever sat side by side in a classroom, bored out of their minds. All of this wondering was forgotten about as soon as the first spell was cast, because what might have happened in school no longer mattered. The only thing that mattered was the fact that we're duelling to kill and showing mercy was a weakness.

Fabian and Gideon moved in perfect unison and, for one wild moment, Fabian thought they might actually get out of there alive. It was only when he watches as flames crawled across Gideon’s chest and the Sectumsempra curse caught Fabian full in the chest, he realised that they were done.

His vision blurring, Fabian groped the air frantically behind him until he found Gideon's shaking hand and gripped onto it as tightly as his injuries would allow.

“We've had a good run,” Fabian gasped, now too weak to even lift his wand.

“At least we took out as many of the bastards as we could,” Gideon replied.

But not enough, Fabian thought to himself as he felt his brother fall to the ground behind him and the Dark Mark burst into the sky.

—-

Molly Weasley stood at the graveside, cradling her stomach as she felt her seventh child kick as though they were having a fight inside her womb. The last thing the family needed was more fighters, Fabian and Gideon had proved that. 

“They fought like heroes,” 

She turned around to see a young man stood behind her. His tawny hair was speckled with grey and his face was scarred. Clearly, the war had not been kind to him. 

“So I’ve heard,” she replied. Already, she had lost count of how many people had said that to her,  “it doesn’t bring them back though, does it?” 

“Of course not,” the young man replied. He sighed and then smiled at her, “I am sorry for your loss, Miss Prewett,” 

“Mrs Weasley,” she corrected him. 

He smiled at her again and then walked away, his hands in the pockets of his robes. He was replaced by Penelope, crying quietly into a handkerchief. Their were deep bags underneath her eyes and her skin looked unhealthy and as though all the life had been sucked out of it. 

“Can you believe that the first time I’ve left the house in monta is to attend my husbands funeral?” She asked bitterly, wiping her eyes. 

Molly linked arms with her and rested her head on Penelope’s shoulder, “We’re going to be OK, Penny,”

”I’m pregnant,” 

Penelope said it so quietly that Molly almost didn’t hear her properly. It took her a few seconds to fully register what Penelope had said. 

The baby began to kick again and Molly thought that maybe it was a good thing to have a family of fighters.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank-you so much for reading! 
> 
> If you care enough, you can follow me on tumblr - E-Sawyer
> 
> -E.


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